JULY 28: The Wizards have officially signed Butler, according to a press release from the team. The club has one open two-way slot remaining.
JULY 24: The Wizards have agreed to sign free agent point guard Jared Butler to a two-way deal, his agent Mark Bartelstein at Priority Sports informs Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Butler, 22, was selected with the No. 40 overall pick out of Baylor in 2021. He played out his rookie season with the Jazz, who waived him ahead of the 2022/23 season. He joined the Nuggets’ NBAGL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold, at the start of last season, before eventually latching on with the Thunder on a two-way deal this past March.
Across 48 total NBA contests in his two seasons of experience, Butler holds averages of 4.1 PPG on .415/.343/.688 shooting, along with 1.5 APG.
Last year in the NBAGL, he enjoyed significantly more run, and accordingly had more impressive stats. He posted averages of 16.7 PPG, 6.3 APG, 3.3 RPG, and 0.9 SPG in his 27 total games split between the Grand Rapids Gold and the Thunders’ G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.
Never a bad thing when you ink a guy represented by Mark Bartelstein and Priority Sports.
Mark is genuinely a good guy. In my prior basketball life I did a couple of favors for Mark, and used to get checks from Priority Sports. This goes back some years, I got him involved with Evan Turner following Evan’s sophomore year at Ohio State. Evan went back to Ohio State, won National Player of the Year, went #2 to Philly, but didn’t select Mark as his agent. I also got involved when Mark was highly interested in getting his son, Josh (Suns CEO), and Ivy League basketball scholarship. Ultimately walked him on at Michigan.
…what kind of favors are we talking here tho
I thought he was good enough. Especially if he can play the point. The guy can score. But he’s small. So it helps if he holds down the PG. I would play in G-league PG to get better. He’s worth a shot.
I’d like to see Butler succeed, if only because of his college exploits. His final team at Baylor (2020-21) was a joy to watch during the pandemic season. A throwback group, with a starting lineup of SRs and JRs, without a top 50 national recruit. Teams built like that can still win in the college game. But I can’t remember one dominating the way this group did, wire to wire, including a NC game demolition of a theretofore unbeaten and #1 ranked Gonzaga team. Bulter and Mitchell were the only NBA draftees among the rotation players.